Without vouchsafing any comment, the owner of the Half-Moon reined away from the strange guide, and, as Snider joined him, discussed the situation thoroughly.

The questioning of Lawrence, however, did not cease when the ranchmen left him.  The four boys had listened eagerly, and when the opportunity presented deluged him with inquiries.

“Are there really ghosts in the Lost Lode?” queried Horace.

“None but very live ones,” grinned the former raider.  “Vasquez started that story to keep people from coming into the valley.  Many a time we’ve chased men in the night when they came near.”

The chums, however were more interested in learning whether or not there was rich ore in the mine.

“Probably there is,” explained Lawrence, “but it would require a lot of drilling and sinking of shafts.  What silver could be got out, Vasquez has taken.  He was planning to use the money from the cattle captured in the raid to buy machinery and begin work.”

Disappointed to think they would not be able to pick up chunks of the ore, the comrades lapsed into silence till Tom suddenly bethought him of the men he had seen crossing the cliff on the night of their hunting trip, and he lost no time in asking if they were some of Megget’s gang.

“Must have been Gus and the boys who were with him up in Oklahoma,” declared the guide.  “There’s a trail from that direction to the mine.  Now you mention it, I remember he spoke of having seen a party of horsemen.  It’s a good thing for you he didn’t know who it was.  If he had, he was so angry at your outwitting him that he would surely have made trouble.”

Further questioning, however, was prevented by the arrival of the troop at the trail.

“There are my marks,” exclaimed the younger of the chums, pointing to the branches he had broken.  But no one paid him heed, for with the arrival at the hills the serious work began and the ranchmen were busy issuing instructions.

CHAPTER XXIV

CAPTURING THE CATTLE THIEVES

As they wound in and out among the hills and rocks, now ascending, now going down steep pitches, the silence of their surroundings and the realization that they were bent on a dangerous mission sobered the boys and few words did they speak.

Once or twice the line halted as the leaders heard some sound that roused their suspicions, and several times Sandy and Nails dropped back.  But nothing untoward occurred, and late in the afternoon they descended into the valley that was the headquarters of the raiders.

“We’re in time; there’s no one here,” announced Lawrence after an examination of the ground for fresh horse or cattle tracks.

Remembering their guide’s statement about the cliff on which the lookout was posted when the raiders were at the mine, die boys sought it with their eyes.  But though they scanned both sides of the mountains, all they could see was trees.